Wayne Couzens received tax-payer funded salary for three MONTHS after killing and raping Sarah Everard in sick murder

WAYNE Couzens received a tax-payer funded salary for three MONTHS after killing and raping Sarah Everard.

The sick killer who murdered, raped, and burnt the 33-year-old woman was still granted a salary from the Met Police in the months before he admitted to his heinous crimes.

The Met Police said that Couzens only stopped being paid his officer salary after he pleaded guilty to raping and murdering Sarah on July 9.

But the disgusting crimes occurred on March 3 – meaning that the killer continued to collect money from his tax-payer funded job for three months.

Couzens was an officer in the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, where the average salary is over £37,000 a year.

He used the guise of a Covid patrol to trick Sarah Everard into handcuffs, placed her in the back of a car, before he raped and strangled her with his police belt.

The Met Police said: "Couzens stopped being paid as a police officer immediately following his guilty pleas.

"This was as soon as legally possible. The MPS held an accelerated hearing following his guilty plea. He was dismissed on 16 July."

Today, Sarah Everard's family wept as the depraved cop who raped and murdered her in a fake arrest was told he will die behind bars.

Couzens had prowled the dark streets looking for prey when he spotted the 33-year-old walking back from a friend's house in Clapham.

The Met Police officer, who was wearing a police belt later used to strangle Sarah, then produced his warrant card as he tricked her into a fake arrest.

Couzens today joined the grim ranks of criminals in the UK who will die behind bars after receiving a whole life tariff.

Lord Justice Fulford imposed the rare order, which just 61 criminals in the UK have, as he abused his position as a police officer.

There were tears and sighs of relief from Sarah's family as Couzens became the first British cop to ever receive the sentence.

They later released a statement saying "nothing can bring" Sarah back as they described the "overwhelming pain" of losing her.

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Sentencing, the judge said: "The misuse of a police officer's role such as occurred in this case in order to kidnap, rape and murder a lone victim is of equal seriousness as a murder for the purpose of advancing a political, religious ideological cause."

He praised Sarah's family, whose statements in court revealed the human impact of Couzen's "warped, selfish and brutal offending which was both sexual and homicidal".

The judge said: "Sarah Everard was a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of circumstances that culminated in her death and the disposal of her body. She was simply walking home.”

He told how Couzens spent a month travelling from his home in Deal, Kent, to London while hatching a gruesome plan to "hunt a lone female to kidnap and rape".

Lord Justice Fulford added: "Sarah Everard’s state of mind, and what she had to endure would have been as bleak and agonising as it is possible to imagine."

Sarah's harrowing final moments were revealed for the first time at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Her tormented parents Susan and Jeremy were forced to sit through the grim details of her death as they bravely stood up to face her killer.

🔵 Read our Wayne Couzens sentencing blog for the latest updates

Along with Sarah's sister Katie, they read powerful statements revealing the nature of her murder meant they couldn't even have a final kiss goodbye.

Cowardly Couzens couldn't even bear to face them as chilling CCTV showed him standing just feet away from marketing executive Sarah on the night of March 3.

The final time Sarah is seen alive is in the back of Couzen's rental car as she is driven to her death just five minutes after the predator pounced.

What followed was a terrifying 50-mile journey from London to Dover where Sarah – trapped by handcuffs and her seatbelt – was unable to escape.

Prosecutors say Sarah "must have realised her fate" during the “lengthy ordeal” that lead “inexorably to her rape and murder".

The court was told how after strangling defenceless Sarah, he treated himself to a hot chocolate with coconut milk and bakewell tart from Costa.

He chucked her phone in a river and was spotted on CCTV filling up a jerry can with petrol.

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